


Escape for Another Day

by veeagainst



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: First War with Voldemort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-14
Updated: 2013-09-14
Packaged: 2017-12-26 12:42:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/966048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veeagainst/pseuds/veeagainst
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A life and death experience brings Sirius and Remus together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Escape for Another Day

Remus did not bother to cradle the ancient book; he didn't have the time. Beside him, Sirius clutched his wand and looked over his shoulder, his head perfectly still and his chin slightly up as he stared down the long corridor towards the door.

 

"Bugger, can't find it," Remus whispered. The pages were stiff and yellowed and the corners cracked off in his hand. He couldn't turn the pages fast enough and he could feel the spine separating from the binding against his knees.

 

"S'all right," Sirius murmured. "Take your time. I'll be able to see anyone before they see us."

 

More pages passed, more yellowed flakes decorated with brown ink drifting down and settling on Remus' worn shoes. In desperation, he grabbed a chunk of pages and flipped them all at once, hoping to find the page they needed by chance alone --

 

Sirius' hand descended on Remus' shoulder and squeezed once, twice, three times. Three Death Eaters. Remus froze, holding his breath, and strained to sense their intentions. Another squeeze: four. Without knowing why, Remus reached up and placed his hand over Sirius'. They were outnumbered two to one and Order regulations specified that they were to flee rather than fight.

 

"Take the book," Sirius whispered, his mouth suddenly on Remus' ear. "Can you carry it?"

 

Remus nodded and stood as silently as he could, gathering the book to his chest. He didn't dare close it, for fear that the binding would split. Sirius put his hand into Remus' robe pocket, his fingers brushing against Remus' thigh as he drew out his wand and placed it in Remus' hand. Remus nodded again and took a deep breath. They stared at one another for a long time, both waiting for the smell or sound of their enemy and silently plotting their course. They knew what the other was thinking in the incline of a head, the bite of a lip, the quirk of an eyebrow. Sirius blinked and then Remus did too; they'd both heard the first footfall into the dark library. Remus jerked his head in the direction of the main staircase and Sirius moved towards it before stopping and throwing up his hand. Remus caught it rather than run into it and their fingers tangled together. Sirius leaned in and breathed into Remus' ear, "Two more there."

 

"Fuck," Remus mouthed. "Fuck, fucking fuck."

 

Sirius nodded and their hands tugged apart as if by independent will. Remus clamped his hand back onto the book's cover and held on tight. His heartbeat pounded, muffled by the thick pages pressed against his chest, but he could still hear the blood rushing in his ears.

 

Sirius' head had tilted back and he scanned the shelves over their heads. He looked at Remus; nodded up; and then held out his arms for the book. "You first," he mouthed.

 

Remus shook his head and managed to angle his wand so that it pointed at the book. A silent spell later, and it was floating slowly up the line of the bookcase, moving in such a way that it appeared to blend into the books behind it.

 

Leaning in close, Remus told Sirius, "Do you want to climb?"

 

"Can't Apparate," Sirius muttered. "Element of surprise. That."

 

Remus nodded. Sirius' hand had somehow migrated to the small of his back and his icy fingers -- it was very cold inside of the library, especially for two men who had been sweating in the August humidity before they broke into the building -- burned through the thin cloth of Remus' shirt. Shivering involuntarily, Remus put a hand on the shelf before him and hoisted himself up just as a Death Eater rounded the corner.

 

The bookshelf collapsed with a crash, burying all three of them in an avalanche of musty books. Frantic, Remus windmilled his arms and tried to swim out of the clammy vellum and crackling paper that was drowning him. In the distance, coming through like a staticky wireless broadcast, he could hear shouts over a strange hissing sound. He dragged himself free and saw the Death Eater's feet sticking out from under one of the massive oak panels of the bookcase. Fighting down an insane urge to laugh, he started tearing books away, covers flying off in his hands, as he frantically searched for Sirius.

 

A hand closed like a steel trap around his forearm. Remus had had nightmares, as a child, of steel jaws closing around each of his limbs, of wolf hunters trapping him and waiting for him to die in the cold, and now the feeling came back to him, vivid and icy.

 

"Moony, Apparate," Sirius hissed in his ear, and Remus, shocked, realized that it was Sirius' hand clutching him so tightly.

 

"The book--"

 

"Forget it, fuck, Moony, just _forget it_."

 

Remus twisted in Sirius' grip -- he was sure to have a bruise in the morning -- and saw terror in Sirius' wide blue eyes. He continued stupidly, "But we came for the --"

 

"He's here," Sirius breathed, frozen to the spot. "Remus, he's here."

 

Remus hesitated and smelled the air, not knowing who Sirius could be talking --

 

And suddenly the hissing in his ears made sense as an enormous snake rounded the corner and glided over the cracked wood floor towards them.

 

" _He's_ here," Sirius repeated, unnecessarily. His fingernails dug into Remus' arm so hard that tears welled in Remus's eyes, but he didn't want Sirius to let go.

 

"I can't Apparate," Remus breathed a moment later, after straining to do so, and although he could not tear his gaze away from the rapidly advancing snake, he knew that Sirius could not either. "Some hex has..."

 

"Anti-Apparation Hex, or something," Sirius said with him. "Moony..."

 

Remus flicked his wand and the bookshelf next to the snake shook, tipped, and then crashed to the ground. Far off, an alarm began to sound, a wailing claxon in the dark. Remus spun and wrenched Sirius' hand free of his arm, hooked their fingers together, and began to run. He didn't know where he was going. He could see a floor-length window in the distance and he drew his wand to blast it open, but Sirius beat him to it. The glass shattered and fell onto the floor in a sheet, littering their path with shards. Sirius stepped on one and yelled, doubling over and wrenching his hand free of Remus'. Remus turned back and grabbed Sirius around the shoulders, dragging him along, trying to ignore the trail of blood following them.

 

"Moony, can't," Sirius gasped, and Remus opened his mouth to urge him on, just as far as the window, but a Death Eater flew out from behind another row of shelves and raised her wand. "Can't, she's coming," Sirius managed. Remus ducked and hauled Sirius down another corridor and up a curving flight of stairs. They staggered onto a balcony made of iron rungs, Remus half-carrying, half-dragging Sirius with him.

 

"Look," Sirius whispered, pointing between the rows of books. Someone -- something -- with a white face and glowing red eyes stood, holding the book that they'd come to the library for in the first place. Remus froze just as the red eyes moved up the stacks leisurely and stared straight at them.

 

Terror cleared Remus' mind and he staggered back, still holding Sirius, into another shelf. Below them, they could hear voices, both in English and Parseltongue, and then footsteps coming up the stairs. Remus drew his wand and knew that he would die fighting beside Sirius, right here, in the floor made slick with Sirius' blood, before he would ever turn and run and leave Sirius behind. He clenched his fist around the magical wood and kept his other arm in a tight grip around Sirius, who had twisted behind him and was tugging books out onto the floor.

 

A Death Eater in a black mask appeared, and Remus could tell from the way she moved that she was the same one from the corridor by the window. She raised her wand just as Sirius yanked out a giant book, dropped it, and kicked it open to the first page with his injured foot. Blood spurted across the pages, and the last thing Remus saw as Sirius' hand descended on his forearm once more was a curtain of red as he stumbled onto the pages and then sank straight down into the book.

 

Cool wind tore through Remus' hair as he quite literally tumbled out of the sky and landed on the ground atop Sirius. A second later, the book smashed into his side and knocked the wind out of him. He lay there gasping for several seconds, face buried in Sirius' robe, before he felt Sirius' hand wrap around his waist and shove the book to the ground. Then:

 

"Moony? You all right?"

 

"Mmmgh."

 

"... Good."

 

"Mmhmm." Remus lay there a moment more, trying to catch his breath, before Sirius shifted underneath him. Remus started to sit up, but Sirius' arm had somehow wound up around his waist again and the fingers of Sirius' other hand had come to rest on the nape of Remus' neck and stroke the soft hair there. Remus sank down and turned his head to face Sirius' neck, rubbing his nose against the soft spot right above his clavicle. It was strange, to think of nuzzling up to Sirius, but at that moment, nothing had ever felt more natural. Remus' heart continued to race; his breath continued to warm Sirius' neck. Sirius seemed to have developed a shiver.

 

"What the hell happened?" Remus asked after several seconds of just lying there, adjusting his hands so that one rested on Sirius' arm and the other on his hipbone. "What was that book?"

 

Sirius laughed softly, and Remus felt his adam's apple slide up and down against his cheek. "We were in the travel section, Moony."

 

Remus put his hands on the ground and pushed himself up, squinting through the darkness. By the light of the half moon, he could see tall stones rising from the ground all around them, forming a ring. He twisted his head back and forth, trying to take in the view; then he looked down at Sirius and saw the other man's mouth, slightly open, and his eyes, unblinking as they looked at Remus. Sirius had never looked at Remus like that before, Remus thought, and he put his hand back on Sirius' hip, balancing himself on the other.

 

"Scotland, I think," he said softly. "Travel guide to Scotland. One of those old ones that transported you free of charge."

 

"Bloody lucky of us," Sirius whispered. He licked his lips and Remus found himself suddenly captivated by the way that his saliva made them gleam in the darkness. "What was that, our fourth close call in as many months?"

 

"First time we ever saw _him_ , though," Remus murmured. "We were lucky."

 

"Too lucky," Sirius said shortly. He licked his lips again, and the hand around Remus' waist moved that much closer, held on that much tighter. "Our luck is going to run out."

 

"Not before the end of August," Remus said, just to say anything at all. He was deeply, immensely grateful that they had survived just so they could have this conversation. "We can't have bad luck in the summer time."

 

"That doesn't make any sense," Sirius said. The hand that had been on the back of Remus' neck had drifted around to stroke the shadows underneath Remus' chin.

 

Remus had to look away; his heart pounded harder against its echo in Sirius' chest. Remus had a sudden shock of inevitability: they'd been building up to this for so many years that now that it had come --

 

"I'm scared," Sirius whispered. His fingers rested now on Remus' lips. "I'm scared to die, Moony."

 

Without thinking, Remus opened his mouth and licked the tips of Sirius' fingers. "I'm scared too, Padfoot," he said around them. They slid further inside and Remus wrapped his tongue around them, sucked hard, and was satisfied to hear Sirius gasp.

 

"Moony." A pause. "I want--"

 

"Does your foot hurt?" Remus asked. The hand that he had on Sirius' hip moved down to rest atop of Sirius' muscular thigh.

 

"A bit," Sirius said. "But Moony--"

 

"Shh," Remus said, reaching up now to place Sirius' fingers back over his own lips and kissing them. "Let me look at it."

 

Sirius' wide eyes followed him as he moved down to his foot and touched it gently with first his hand and then the tip of his wand. Sirius took a deep breath and dug his fingers into Remus' shoulder as the glass slid out of his foot -- out the top of his boot -- and landed in the grass beside the book. Then Remus removed the boot and stroked his fingers from Sirius' toes to his ankle, along the tendons and veins beneath the torn skin, leaving only pale white scar tissue in place of the wound. Sirius arched his back and then relaxed, but his hand remained on Remus.

 

"I'm scared too," Remus confided. He crept back up and bent over Sirius. "I'm scared to die, too."

 

"I'm terrified," Sirius said, his hands suddenly around Remus' back and tugging him closer, "that I'll die before you--"

 

"I'm scared that you'll die before I tell you--"

 

"I used to think about it, sometimes, but I tried to forget--"

 

"I thought of what James and Peter would say if I--"

 

"But you can't die without knowing." Sirius' mouth was on Remus' neck, his tongue pressed into the hollow between Remus' ear and hairline. "You have to know."

 

"I know," Remus gasped, winding his fingers in Sirius' hair. "I know, I know."

 

Sirius kissed him, open-mouthed from the beginning, tongues shoved into mouths and teeth and saliva, not any kind of romantic kiss, but a desperate plea for another night on this earth, together. Remus crawled over top of Sirius and straddled him, their mouths never separating; Sirius' fingers were on the buttons of Remus' trousers, tearing at them in haste, shaking violently as Remus hung on to the kiss, refusing to separate even when they were gasping into each other's mouths and his hands got caught between the inside of Sirius' thigh and his own leg. Sirius' gave up on the buttons and shoved his hand straight into Remus' pants, eliciting a yelp and getting his tongue bitten badly. Around the taste of blood, they rolled until their legs had hooked together and Sirius lay atop Remus, shoving him into the soft heather, through that and into the cold earth, his erection heavy against Remus leg'. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction: Remus shoved back, wrapped his legs around Sirius' waist, and forgot dignity as they ground against each other.

 

"Moony," Sirius gasped, his mouth now somewhere in the vicinity of Remus' left temple, one hand wrapped around Remus' leg, dragging it up against his side. "Moony, how do you do this to me, how do you--"

 

Remus didn't hear the rest of it. The night sky exploded behind his eyes, so he shut out the sight and clenched his fists around anything he could catch ahold of -- Sirius' hip and a patch of grass -- and rode out the waves that threatened to sweep him away; a few moments later, he felt Sirius shaking atop him and then the hand around his leg spasmed convulsively and let go.

 

Several moments passed; the only sound within the ring of stones was twin ragged gasping. Then Sirius drew a shuddering breath and sank into Remus, one hand coming up to rest upon Remus' cheek. Remus wrapped his arms tightly around Sirius and held onto him, letting sleep play at the edges of his mind. In the morning, they could go back and make their report. They could say that Voldemort had gotten the book before they had been able to, that they'd failed, but that they'd escaped with their lives. He stroked Sirius' soft black hair and watched the other man's eyelids flutter open and closed, open and closed, open and then stay closed. They'd been lucky again, and Remus knew that he wouldn't go home alone the next night. He shut his eyes, finally, assured that he would not forget the way that Sirius looked at that moment for as long as he lived. They'd been lucky again, again, and again, and if that was all they could have, then they would make the best of their time together. 


End file.
